Racking up the honors

Press Release

03/09/2004

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Several University of Kansas men's basketball players earned All-Big 12 accolades, as announced by the Associated Press and the conference office Monday.

KU junior Wayne Simien, a finalist for the Wooden and Naismith player of the year awards, was named First Team All-Big 12 by the Associated Press. A unanimous selection, Simien was joined on the First Team by Andre Emmett of Texas Tech, John Lucas and Tony Allen of Oklahoma State and Brandon Mouton of Texas.

In addition, Keith Langford was named Second Team All-Big 12, junior Aaron Miles was named Third Team All-Big 12 and to the Big 12 All-Defense Team and J.R. Giddens was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.

A 6-9 power forward from Leavenworth, Kan., Simien leads KU in both scoring and rebounding with a career-high 17.6 points and 9.0 boards per game -- good for second place in the Big 12 in both categories. He's averaging 21.1 points per game over his last 10, he's scored in double-figures in 14 straight games and he's scored at least 20 points in seven of his last nine contests. Despite dealing with a series of nagging injuries his entire career, Simien is just 47 points shy of 1,000 for his career.

Langford is a 6-4 guard out of Fort Worth, Texas, who ranks second on the team with a career-high 16.1 points per game on 48.1 percent shooting from the field. He also grabs 4.7 boards per game and ranks second on the squad in three-point field goals (35) and three-point percentage (38.9 percent). Langford currently ranks 21st on KU's all-time scoring list with 1,331 career points.

Miles is a 6-1 guard hailing from Portland, Ore., who scores 9.4 points to go with team-highs of 7.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game. He leads the Big 12 and ranks fourth in the nation in assists, while ranking second in the league in steals. Miles boasts 695 career assists, ranking second on Kansas' all-time career list.

Giddens is a 6-5 freshman guard from Oklahoma City, Okla., who ranks third on the team with 10.7 points per game on 46.0 percent shooting from the field. He leads the team with 60 three-point field goals and shoots a team-high 40.3 percent from behind the arc. Giddens is now 20 treys away from breaking Jeff Boschee's single-season KU freshman three-pointers record.